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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Real Networks (was Re: Neighbor optimized away)
Message-ID: <6683@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-May-86 17:57:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6683
Posted: Mon May 12 17:57:37 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 12-May-86 17:57:37 EDT
References: <4509@dartvax.UUCP> <2124@peora.UUCP>, <912@decuac.DEC.COM> <6657@utzoo.UUCP>, <1104@munnari.OZ>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 20
Keywords: uucp pathalias

> If the host goes down without telling you in advance, then all you
> can ever determine is that you can't communicate with it when you
> want to... On a dial up link, [deciding he's down] might be appropriate
> after a few hours or days.
> 
> In either case, a Real Network can then reroute traffic after it
> has made this determination.

Unfortunately, such rerouting attempts are of little use (and may even
be counterproductive) if the he's-down decision process takes a length
of time comparable to the probable downtime.  Which can easily be the
case, given heavily-used phone lines and calling-time restrictions.
By the time you are sure he is down, he's probably up again.  Possibly
things are better in Australia, but hereabouts it is impossibly hard
to automatically keep down/up data current enough to be very useful for
rerouting.  Oh sure, if he's down for a month that's different... but
it's also very infrequent, to the point where it can be handled manually.
-- 
Join STRAW: the Society To	Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
Revile Ada Wholeheartedly	{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry